In the origin story of the Makiritare (or Yekuana), a dreaming people of Venezuela, there was chaos and suffering in the world after the departure of Wanadi, a primordial being, before the dream shamans arose. People ceased to have direct contact with the other world, the realms where the akato (soul) travels and the masters of animals dwell. They could no longer rescue souls of the living or send souls of the dead to the right place. Without dreams, they were helpless in a world of illusion, trapped in delusions of the day and manipulations of other beings. Rescue could only come through the journey of a dream shaman who could reenter the invisible world and change things there and bring home the souls trapped in illusory realities.
Medatia is the one who turned himself into
a dream shaman. He traveled to seven worlds beyond this one and brought skills
and insight from all of them. He could then travel to the houses of the spirits
and the animals – even the house of Odosha, the Dark One – and retrieve the
people held captive there. At one point in his journey through Upper Worlds, he
had to leave his second body dead in a lake, while a guide like a huge humanoid
blue butterfly helped him to rise in another body. There are lots of anacondas
in the story, though not in the picture.
Source: Marc de
Civrieux, “Medatia: A Makiritare Shaman’s Tale”, translated by David M. Guss in
The Language of the Birds ed Guss
)San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985) 55-75
Images: (top) Cosmos of the Makiritare Shaman (bottom) "Lake in the Sky" by Robert Moss
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